"07 - Burnt Offerings 4.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Laurell K)

copy of National Wildlife, with an article on Kodiak bears. The magazine hid the
gun nicely.
"Who is it?"
"It's Irving."
"Come in." I left the gun out, just in case somebody would try to push in behind
him. Irving Griswold was a werewolf and a reporter. For a reporter he was a good
guy, but he wasn't as careful as I was. When I saw he was alone, then I would
put the gun up.
Irving pushed the door open, smiling. His frizzy brown hair encircled his head
like a brown halo with the bald spot gleaming in the middle. Glasses perched on
a small nose. He was short and gave the impression of being round without being
fat. He looked like anything but a big bad wolf. He didn't even look much like a
reporter, which was one of the things that made him such a great interviewer but
would probably always keep him from being on-camera material. He worked for the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and had interviewed me many times.
He closed the door behind him.
I put up the gun.
His eyes widened. He spoke low, but not in a whisper. "How's Stephen?"
"How did you get in here? There's supposed to be a cop on the door."
"Gee, Blake, I'm glad to see you too."
"Don't mess with me, Irving. There's supposed to be a guard out there."
"He's talking to a very pretty nurse at the desk."
"Dammit." I was not a real cop, so I couldn't go around yelling at them, but it
was tempting. There was a law floating around Washington that might give vampire
hunters federal badges soon. Sometimes I thought it was a bad idea. Sometimes, I
didn't.
"Talk to me fast before I get kicked out. How is Stephen?"
I told him. "You don't care about Nathaniel?"
He looked uncomfortable. "You know that Sylvie is de facto pack leader while
Richard is out of town working on his master's degree, right?"
I sighed. "No, I didn't know."
"I know you're not talking to Richard since you broke up, but I'd think someone
else would have mentioned it."
"All the other wolves creep around me like there's been a death. No one talks
about Richard to me, Irving. I thought he'd forbidden them to talk to me."
"Not to my knowledge."
"I'm surprised you didn't come in here asking for a story."
"I can't do this story, Anita. It's too close to home."
"Because you know Stephen?"
"Because everyone involved is a shapeshifter and I'm just a mild-mannered
reporter."
"You really think you'd lose your job if they found out?"
"Job, hell. What would my mother say?"
I smiled. "So you can't play bodyguard."
He frowned. "You know, I hadn't thought about that. When one of the pack got
hurt in public where it couldn't be hidden, Raina always used to ride to the
rescue. With her dead, I don't think we have any alphas that aren't hiding what
they are. No one I'd trust to guard Stephen, anyway."
Raina had been the wolf pack's old lupa before I took the job. Technically the
old lupa doesn't have to die to step down, unlike the Ulfric, or King Wolf. But